So well was this running performed, that in a short time they knew, at a distance of 300 leagues, 500, and even 800, what had passed, or what was needed or required. With such secrecy did the runners keep the messages that were entrusted to them, that neither entreaty nor menace could ever extort a relation of what they had thus heard, although the news had already passed onwards. The roads pass over rugged mountains, over snow covered ridges, over stony wildernesses, and forests full of thorny thickets, in such sort that it may be taken as quite certain that the news could not have been conveyed with greater speed on swift horses or on mules, than by these foot posts. For the men on foot have no impediments, and one of them can do more in a day than a mounted messenger could do in three. I do not mean one single Indian, but one running for one half league, and another for the next, according to the established order. And it must be understood that neither storms nor anything else prevent the due service of the posts in the wildest parts, and as soon as one started another arrived to wait in his place. In this way the lords were kept informed of all that happened in every part of the empire, and they arranged all that was needful for the ordering of the government, in the same way. In no other part of the world do we read of any such invention; although I am aware that when Xerxes the Great was defeated, the news was conveyed by men on foot, in a short time. Certainly this system of posts was very important in Peru, and by it we may well see how good was the government of these lords. At the present day some of these post-houses may be seen near the royal roads, in many parts of the mountains, and they bear testimony to the truth of what has been said. I have also seen some of the _topos_, which as I have already explained, are like heaps for landmarks, except that these are larger and better made, and were used for counting the distance, each interval between them being one and a half leagues of Castille. CHAPTER XXII. _How the Mitimaes were established, and of the different kinds of them, and how they were highly esteemed by the Incas._ In this chapter I wish to describe that which appertains to those Indians called _mitimaes_, for many things are related concerning them in Peru, and they were honoured and privileged by the Incas, being next in rank to the Orejones, while in the History which they entitle _Of the Indies_, it is written by the author,[135] that they were slaves of Huayna Capac. Into this error all those writers fall who depend upon the relations of others, without having such knowledge of the land concerning which they write, as to be able to affirm the truth.